Blind hiker on a ‘Vision Quest’

In March, Randy Pierce of Nashua became the first blind person to climb all 48 of the 4,000-foot peaks in New Hampshire’s White Mountains in a single winter.

Left: Randy Pierce cups his hand to form a drinking bowl for his guide dog, The Mighty Quinn, enroute to the summit of Mt. Willey in Hart’s Location, N.H., earlier this month.

Now, in a mission he’s called “2020 Vision Quest,” Pierce aims to scale all of the summits in a series of summers.

Randy Pierce (left) holds on to the pack of his wife, Tracy Pierce, as the two make their way along the Willey Range Trail enroute to the summit of Mt. Willey in Hart’s Location, N.H., earlier this month.

He started his summer journey in 2010, has done 36 of the peaks so far, and expects to complete the task — hopefully alongside Quinn, who, at 8, is nearing guide dog retirement age — by the end of the 2013 season.

At left: Randy Pierce climbs a steep wooden trail stairway as he makes his way along the Willey Range Trail enroute to the summit of Mt. Willey in Hart’s Location, N.H., earlier this month.

None of it would happen without Quinn. The two share their own language of feeling: Quinn’s pauses, backward steps, slight or hard movements, and tugs on his harness let his human partner know how, when, and where to step and turn.

Left: Randy Pierce makes his way along the Ethan Pond Trail enroute to the summit of Mt. Willey with some expert guidance from Quinn, his guide dog.

Pierce grew up fully sighted, but in 1989, at age 22, within the span of two weeks, he lost all the vision in his right eye, and half in his left.

In September 2000, he went totally blind.

Left: Randy Pierce holds out a few raisins in the hopes of attracting a gray jay to his hand during a hike on Willey Range Trail enroute to the summit of Mt. Willey. Waiting nearby is friend Justin Fuller.

In just the past two years, Pierce has spoken to 16,000 students, run road races with Quinn and earned a second-degree black belt in karate.

“The only thing a blind person can’t do is see,” he said.

With mountains reflected in his sunglasses, Randy Pierce (left) pauses as he makes his way along the Willey Range Trail enroute to the summit of Mt. Willey in Hart’s Location, N.H., earlier this month. In his sunglass lenses a Patriots emblem hints at his avid fandom of the team.